Armenian politicians confident that Turkey will recognize Genocide

April 24, 2014 - 19:35 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey will have to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide sooner or later, deputy foreign minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said after his visit to Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial Thursday, April 24, according to ARKA.

“What's important is for us to be well prepared and consistent. Our consistency will produce a result sooner or later. Turkey will acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, with PM Erdogan's recent statement suggesting the fact,” Kocharyan said.

"It is our hope and belief that the peoples of an ancient and unique geography, who share similar customs and manners will be able to talk to each other about the past with maturity and to remember together their losses in a decent manner. And it is with this hope and belief that we wish that the Armenians who lost their lives in the context of the early twentieth century rest in peace, and we convey our condolences to their grandchildren. Regardless of their ethnic or religious origins, we pay tribute, with compassion and respect, to all Ottoman citizens who lost their lives in the same period and under similar conditions,” Erdogan's statement said.

The chief of the government staff Davit Harutyunyan believes that the day is near for Turkey to recognize the Genocide, with the condemnation of the crime as a task of the whole humanity.

He further urged Turkey to show political will and acknowledge the Armenian Genocide in the face of undeniable facts.

He also characterized Turkish PM Erdogan's statement as a political necessity, according to Novosti-Armenia.

Parliament speaker Eduard Sharmazanov named the international recognition of the Genocide among key priorities in Armenia's foreign policy. "Unless the international community recognizes and condemns this crime against humanity, they'll always be a risk of repetition of such atrocities in future," Sharmazanov said, according to Armenia Today.

He further slammed Turkey's denialist policy and urged Ankara to follow Germany's suit in apologizing to Jewish people and recognizing the Holocaust.

As the Central Election Committee chair Tigran Mukuchyan stressed, crimes like Genocide have no limitation period, for there are material and moral damages to be compensated.

The secretary of Prosperous Armenia faction Naira Zohrabyan slammed Turkish PM's condolence message as another one of Ankara's cynicisms.

Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan also slammed Erdogan's statement as an attempt to equalize the victims and the perpetrators. "Non-recognition of the Genocide is a perpetuation of the crime against humanity, which is a crime in itself," she stressed.

In conclusion, she expressed confidence that Turkey will sooner or later recognize the Genocide, Panorama.am said.

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, the Italian Chamber of Deputies, majority of U.S. states, parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium and Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Chamber of Commons of Canada, Polish Sejm, Vatican, European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.